Light in the way to Paradise with other occasionals / by Dvdley the 2d late Ld. North.

A Discourse sometime intended as an addition to my observations and advices Oeconomical, afterwards printed.

HAVING treated of Oeconomy ac∣cording to the proper and genuine signification of the word, I shall crave leave to speak somewhat of it in a figurative way, as it is used frequently by Physicians, but to doe it more extensively, taking into consider∣ation the whole government of Man (or Mi∣crocosm) as well Soul as Body. According to this Hypothesis, the Body is to be under∣stood as the House, and Psyche (or the Soul) as absolute Mistriss of it, which I suppose will not be improper, since the Body is called her Mansion, and the faculties of the Soul, and the organical parts of the Body, may be con∣ceived and treated of as Servants. This Oe∣conomy is either Animal, or Rational. The first is common to men and to brutes, The second only proper to men. The first is of so great importance, as the latter cannot be exercised without it, yet the use (or rather

abuse of reason) hath so much power over the sensitive part, as becomes many times destructive to it, which would have been far otherwise with a beast, or brute. The body receiveth all life and motion from the Soul, so far as it must of necessity be dissolved by putrefaction upon a divorce, yet its govern∣ment as to nutrition, is according to a Law, so far from being given by the rational Soul, as the dictates of it for the most part are ut∣terly unknown; yet is there still a superin∣tendency in the Soul, which by the use of reason doth very much conduce to the preser∣vation or destruction of the Body, even in the way of nutrition. A learned Jewish writer, and some no less learned among us Christians, have held, that the Soul of man in this life is a spirit only potentially, but shall be an actual spirit hereafter; and this seemeth to be true, for it is hard to conceive how an actual spi∣rit can reside in a body to govern it, without knowing the several ways and powers, where∣by the said body is preserved, and doth subsist. Yet so it is with every one of us, and so it may very well be, if the Soul within us have no separate being from the Body. But how∣soever the truth is, I shall speak in this paral∣lel, not only of the Soul and Body, but of their several parts and faculties, as things di∣stinct one from another. Among the organi∣cal parts corporeal, the Heart may justly chal∣lenge the dignity of prime officer, being in∣trusted

with the treasure of life, which is the Blood. This is that part of the body which first liveth, and retaineth life the longest. Here the spirits are composed of the purest and most refined part of matter, and become the Mercury or chief Emissary of the Soul. The Heart like a good servant, doth not bury its talent, but keeps it in continual motion by circulation, by which means it receives a con∣stant improvement. To the Heart there be∣long several subordinates in that business of the blood, as the Liver, the Gall, the Kid∣neys, &c. who are always employed in pur∣ging the metal from dross, that it may be more serviceable to life. In the next place we may consider the Stomach as Kitchin, which like the root of Trees, draws and prepares nutriment for the whole, and here we may do well to imitate the most ingenious Poet Spen∣cer, in disposing of some offices, the Appetite being fit for that of Cater (or Achater) Con∣coction for that of Cook, and Digestion for that of Clarke of the Kitchin, to serve in the concocted food to several tables for use; and we may here note, that when more is brought in∣to the Kitchin, than the Cook and the Clarke can sufficiently dress and dispose of, it be∣comes not only offensive, but dangerous to the Family in point of health, besides the waste occasioned otherwise. To this office, by a late but learned Innovator in Physick, the Spleen is made subservient by supplying

acid matter for increase of appetite; and to it also may be said to belong, the Mouth, Teeth, and Throat, the first two for Mastication prepa∣ratory, and the last for passage of Food; as also divers vessels for nutrition though not imme∣diately joyned unto it, with several Canales leading to places of evacuation, by which, as is usual in ordinary dwelling houses, Nature exonerates her self of superfluities, and these are with more decency conceived in mind, than expressed in words. In the most exalted part of Microcosm, which is the Head, is situated the Brain, an appartment contein∣ing several chambers or rooms, where the Soul in presence of her principal officers in∣tellectual, receiveth information by the five Senses, and their Agents the animal Spirits, of that which is done within the body or out of it, in matters of concernment to her, and there she resolveth what is fit to be put in ex∣ecution. Here by the said invisible agents the animal Spirits, carried in their Vehicle the Nerves, she conveyeth orders to the many parts and members of the body, supplying them also by the same instruments with strength and vigour for performance of her commands. Thus much of the parts Orga∣nical or corporeal, and now a word or two of the faculties intellectual. The Will may be compared to the Lord high Constable of England, an officer invested with power too vast for a subject or servant, and in that res∣pect

care must be taken, that he be well coun∣selled, lest he bring all to confusion. The Intellect or Understanding seemeth fit for the office of Maggior domo, or Steward, as being indued with perfection of reason and discourse, worthy to command all the rest, and so it doth, not excluding the Will it self, which as the most learned will have it, always de∣termineth according to the present dictates of the intellect. This faculty of the intellect hath two others attendant upon it, viz. the memory, and imagination or fancy. The first keepeth a record of things past, by perusal of which, and help of the Reminiscence, the Intellect, or Judgment, may the better con∣clude what is to be done for the present or future. The second is possest of a great per∣fection in ordering matters to the best advan∣tage as to circumstances, and so becomes very usefull in most businesses that are to be trans∣acted, affording also a promptness to appre∣hend or conceive that which shall be offered for consideration. Here I think we may fit∣ly treat of the affections, for though they be placed by Philosophers in the Heart, as their Mansion, which belongeth wholly to the sen∣sitive part, yet there must be a kind of spiri∣tuality in them, because they may choose in∣corporeal things as their object. The most perfect (and therefore the most proper) ob∣ject of Love is the Deity, and the most fit object of Hatred is Sin, and he that is the

Father of it. So it may be said of Hope-Fear, and the rest. And were the affections and passions merely brutish, as the old Stoicks taught, they would not be attributed to God, though in a figurative sense; neither would our Saviour have applied himself to purge the Temple with so much fervency, carrying the resemblance of anger. True it is that the irre∣gularity of these, who are or should be as servants, causes the greatest disorders and dis∣turbances in the soul and body, but occasion is thereby given to shew prudence in the bri∣dling of them, wherein consisteth the great∣est difference between man and man. Hi∣therto we have fallen much short of our busi∣ness, not having touched upon the chief end of Man's Creation, viz. the serving of God in holiness and righteousness, which duty consisting of many particulars, was happily epitomised by Moses in the two Tables of the Commandments. For the effecting of this, it hath pleased God to indue the Soul with a faculty, which putteth her continually in mind of those services, and reprehends her upon omission. This faculty is the Consci∣ence, which may slumber but never sleepeth profoundly, and is armed with a power more than Papal, by which it erecteth a tribunal within Psyches own quarters, summoning, ar∣raigning, and many times condemning the Mistriss her self within her own Family. There are troubles of mind by excesses of

loss and dishonour, which make so great im∣pression with persons covetous or ambitious, as by greif to bring them to the period of their life; and I am perswaded, that no man hath so full a tast of the torments of Hell upon earth, as he who is afflicted with horror of Conscience, wherefore I shall make it the only precept in this kind of Oeconomy, to pre∣serve the Conscience from being offended; and so I conclude this brief discourse.